


Catch Me If I’m Falling

by Redisaid



Series: When We Were Falling [2]
Category: Warcraft - All Media Types, Warcraft III, World of Warcraft
Genre: Cultural Differences, Established Relationship, F/F, Falling Universe, Fluff, I've decided Sylvanas gets to have the POV in these one shots, Prompt Fic, Secret Relationship, Skinny Dipping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-01
Updated: 2019-08-01
Packaged: 2020-07-28 15:56:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20066650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redisaid/pseuds/Redisaid
Summary: A cute (not sad, I promise!) little one shot in the Falling universe, taking place somewhere in Falling Stars. This is for the Sylvaina Summer Prompts collection! My prompt was "skinny dipping".





	Catch Me If I’m Falling

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Falling Stars](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17265503) by [Redisaid](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redisaid/pseuds/Redisaid). 

"It's hot," Jaina objected.

"Don't lie to me and tell me your kind has a fear of warm water. I know humans take hot baths," Sylvanas replied with a laugh as she rid herself of her boots and sat by the edge of the spring.

"Warm baths, not boiling ones," Jaina noted with further skepticism as her eyes remained fixed on the steam coming off the water.

"It's fine, see?" Sylvanas offered as she hung her feet over the edge and dipped them into the spring.

It was more than fine, actually. Heavenly. The water was as warm and inviting as the mountain air around them was overly crisp for her taste. But the spring was like a Quel'thalas summer--warm in a way that radiated quickly through her elven bones, staving off any discomforts, chasing away any worries she might have carried with her on that hike.

Well, whichever ones Jaina still hadn't managed to distract her from, at least. 

That got Jaina to crouch down beside her to give the surface of the water a cautious splash. "Okay, not quite boiling then," she concluded.

Sylvanas merely nodded, already entranced by the heat. She rolled up the legs of her trousers, not wanting to get them wet, but still wanting more of herself in the water. "Sit with me," she begged after a moment. "I promise it's nice."

"My feet will look like cooked lobsters if I do that," Jaina protested again.

"They will not," Sylvanas told her. "Trust me."

In fact, she could do one better than that. And well, she wanted to. She wanted to so very much, even to see Jaina's face light up with red, rather than any other part of her. Or rather to know that she could still make her blush.

So Sylvanas began to unbutton her shirt.

"What are you doing?" Jaina asked, back to standing next to her, still hesitant.

"Getting in," was the only explanation she offered. 

And that was easy enough. She had made a habit of wearing comfortable clothes in her trips to the cabin. Really, any excuse to be out of uniform was welcome, plus it wasn't like they remained on her the entire time she was there either. And when they did, well, they were best suited for these little adventures, for morning hunts while Jaina still slept, or afternoon walks where they explored the area around their little valley. 

So yes, said clothes were easy enough to slip out of.

"Sylvanas!" Jaina objected as she began to slide the shirt over her head.

"What? No one is out here to see. Well, except you, and you've seen me plenty before," Sylvanas reminded Jaina, daring to throw in a wink as she tossed the shirt aside, revealing the fact that she'd chosen not to wear anything beneath it that day. "Nothing new here for you."

Oh, but she knew it was. That was part of the fun. She knew that Jaina was used to the sight of her in shadows and dim fire light. In stolen, secret moments where they were still learning the landscape of one another. Moments that made all the moments in between, where they couldn't see one another and pretended not to really know one another, all the more worth it. Moments that Sylvanas hoped to continue having for as long as they could manage. Moments that made her feel alive, and not like some sort of arcane construct held together by duty and responsibility and the ever-present thrum of magic.

Her skin in the sunlight told the same story. Sun-kissed and scarred from a life lived with devotion to a cause, to a birthright--one that she felt like she had been burdened with for centuries, rather than a mere decade. Had her mother felt this way? Had she ever glanced at her arms, at the hardness of her own shoulders, and the faint indents left behind by the straps of her armor, and wondered what was left beneath?

What she wouldn’t give now to ask her.

Sylvanas chose to chase that thought away from her head to look back at Jaina and grin at the redness spreading across her cheeks.

“Good to know I can still make you blush,” she noted as she began to unlace her trousers.

“Blush and worry about your sanity,” Jaina noted, though she started to relax, just slightly. Or at least that wry little smile of hers looked like it was somewhere close to relaxing. “You’re sure it’s not too hot?”

“I’m sure,” Sylvanas nodded as she scooted herself out of the rest of her clothing. She made quick work of setting it aside, deftly tossing the bundle of cloth and soft leather over a nearby tree branch. Then she slid right into the spring, not wanting to spend another second with her bare bottom on the cool rocks.

And yes, it was hot. Wonderfully hot. Mercifully hot.

She found the water was just about as deep as she expected, rising just up to her collar bones, wetting the ends of her platinum locks as they fanned out around her. Sylvanas let it take her, let herself be a part of the enrapturing warmth, liquid as if she were formed by the spring herself. She floated back, rising along the surface, knees and hard angles of her pointing out of the water while most of her was just barely shrouded beneath. Well, not really shrouded at all. The spring was crystal clear.

Only then did she open her eyes, to find Jaina staring. Staring and still flushed. Still smiling. Still worrying, but less now.

“Join me?” Sylvanas asked.

“I...with no clothes?” Jaina questioned back at her as she averted her eyes, only for just a moment.

“You realize that your human sensibilities make...well...even less sense than usual, right?” Sylvanas pointed out as she righted herself again, pointing her legs back down into the water. “This has been a needless struggle since we first met, even.”

A needless, but adorable struggle. She could still remember the look on Jaina’s face when she’d stripped herself of her wet hunting leathers. Those wide, blue eyes, trying so hard not to be obvious in their admiration. Sure, elves didn’t exactly go walking around Silvermoon in the nude either, but they certainly had a lot less in the way of hang ups about showing off one’s skin. And especially in front of a lover. 

Jaina let out a long sigh.

A sigh that got Sylvanas thinking. “You don’t have to, you know,” she told her. “If it makes you uncomfortable. But it’s just me, Jaina. Just me and some warm water. Just me wanting to enjoy something with you. Just us, together, only the birds watching, or maybe your water elemental friend, if he followed you again.”

“Hot water,” Jaina corrected. “And I suppose you’re right. I’ve just never gone skinny dipping before.”

“No clandestine night time swims Lordamere lake with Prince Arthas? Or into the unforgiving seas of Kul Tiras? Not ever?” Sylvanas wondered. Truly wondered. For someone who was so connected to the water, so much attuned to the magic of it. Well, it was hard not to imagine that Jaina didn’t know what it felt like to float against it freely, skin to waves, or in this case, steaming mineral water.

“Light no,” Jaina said even as she sat down on rocks at the edge of the spring and began to unlace her boots. “To the first one, absolutely not. It would be pure scandal for a proper lady of Lordaeron to do such things. And to the second, do you know how cold it is there? I don’t think you can appreciate that properly.”

“You know I would rather not,” Sylvanas said as she twisted in the water again, cementing the idea even further into her mind that yes, she preferred to be surrounded by heat like this, rather than imagining the cold waves of a Kul Tiran sea. 

“I know,” Jaina said with a smile as she splashed a toe into the spring. “So yes, this is hot to me. You seem right at home, though, making elf soup out of yourself.”

“Elf tea sounds better,” Sylvanas joked. “Perhaps I can make a better case for persuasion then?”

“Try me,” Jaina challenged, her feet back out of the water already, and her arm wrapped around her knees.

“Well, for one, I’m in here,” Sylvanas said as she pushed herself off the bottom and drifted over to Jaina. The water was so calm and so heavy that she barely made a wake or a wave. The grace of a natural swimmer helped, of course. One didn’t grow up in a spire beside the ocean without learning how to swim, after all. An ocean kept unnaturally warm for most of the year, sure. Not warm like this, though.

The flush crept back into Jaina’s cheeks as Sylvanas made it over to her, nothing between them but the rocks on the bank and the clear water of the mountain hot spring. “And two,” she went on as she slid a hand out of the water and brushed at Jaina’s leg with it, pushing aside the long skirt she was wearing to land on skin. “It’s very nice and warm in here. And three, I would very much like you to kiss me, and I can’t reach you from in here.”

“You will be the death of me, Sylvanas Windrunner,” Jaina said, even as she reached out for that hand to cover it with her own. 

“Actually, the way you look at me will be the death of me, Jaina Proudmoore,” Sylvanas told her. And it was true. Those soft blue eyes. They still had that same reverence as they always did. Ever since they opened on her that day in the forest. Ever as they always did, however many months later now, in these days where they would steal away to be together here in Alterac. When they dared to have one another in these selfish moments, where neither of them had to be anything other than what they wanted.

Jaina scoffed at her and began to unlace her blouse. 

“The great Lady Proudmoore, about to go skinny dipping with her elven lover. What will the neighbors think?” Sylvanas teased, making a show of not looking away as more of Jaina’s fair, freckled skin was exposed along her shoulders and neckline.

“Our neighbors are yetis, ogres, and stray water elementals, Sylvanas. I doubt they have many deep thoughts about my personal life,” Jaina told her. “If you keep making fun of me, I’ll get up right now and steal away with your clothes.”

“And leave me to walk naked back to the cabin? I may not share your views on nudity taboos, but that’s very cruel to my feet, if nothing else,” Sylvanas told her, splashing a little bit backward to add to the effect.

Jaina smiled. Relaxed, comfortable. Good. “Then be nice.”

“I am nothing but nice,” Sylvanas said. “And I will be even nicer if you get into the water with me. I promise.”

Jaina tugged at the last lace of her top, thinking for a moment before she let it go and shrugged it off. She stood and made a show with the skirt and her undergarments, spending her time hanging them neatly beside where Sylvanas’ had landed haphazardly across the tree branch before. A woman transformed, suddenly, who didn’t seem to have a problem with her nakedness.

But maybe that’s because of who was watching. Or at least, that’s what Sylvanas wanted to think.

Jaina came to sit on the edge of the spring again then, bare of everything but the golden chain she wore around her neck, with Sylvanas’ feather pendant on it. Sun above, did it nestle just so perfectly between her breasts, gold against alabaster skin that proved what she’d said before right. Sylvanas wondered if this was the first time Jaina had felt the sun on it so. To an elf, that sight was nothing short of a religious experience. 

To Sylvanas, who found her young lover to be very beautiful and dangerously endearing, it was twice that.

“You look as if you don’t want me to come in now,” Jaina teased, sliding just one leg into the spring.

“Well, I do, but I was merely enjoying the view,” Sylvanas confessed. “Very much so.”

“I know, and I’m flattered, really. But, I want that kiss,” Jaina said as she began to gingerly slip into the water.

“Then come and get it,” Sylvanas challenged, kicking off from the bottom expertly again and into a dolphin kick, into the deeper middle of the spring.

“Sylvanas!” Jaina cried after her again, shaking with laughter already as she waded after her.


End file.
